The Crimes of the Rich, the Poor.

Aparna Krishnan updated her status.

24 April 2017 at 11:08 · 

A friend was upset because their maid stole a gold bangle.

Yes, she should not steal.

And yes, we should all not amass gold, while the maids family struggles to pay medical mills, and retrieve a nosering pawned to buy rice.

I will start with the latter. With myself, and the rest of my educated community which is privileged beyond all reason.

  

Comments

Mano Chinna One of my professors in MCC used to tell us that "The Poor has the right to steal". As long as exploitation of the poor by rich exists, what my professor said holds valid. Isn't it?

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Aparna Krishnan yes.

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Aparna Krishnan And it is Claiming, and not Stealing.

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Mano Chinna True, it is claiming, not stealing.

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Aparna Krishnan Should be done collectively and opebly. And till that time, when they steal, we need to hang our heads in shame.

Priya Jain But you know what will happen to those who steal/ claim?! And no one will be hanging their head in shame. I don't see that happening. We are a hardened society.

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Priya Jain Or world

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Surajit Dasgupta If the maid is struggling to pay her medical bills, she has probably just landed from a village, unsure of her labour rights. She is under-paid and she does not even know it! Most domestic helps these days earn a decent enough living.

This post is a terrible excuse for a crime.

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Aparna Krishnan It is a post about our crimes, crimes of the Privileged :)

Aparna Krishnan "earn a decent enough living" - where :)??

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Surajit Dasgupta It is communist romanticism. Robinhood-like! The AISA cadre will love it.

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Aparna Krishnan I speak for myself. I exist beyond the Left or Right. I speak the truth as I understand it.

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Surajit Dasgupta Maids active in Delhi earn somewhere around Rs 15,000 - Rs 25,000 a month these days. They charge separately for cooking, cleaning the house, washing utensils and washing clothes. Bringing children back from the school bus stand late afternoon is extra. They finish the chores in one house in 2 h flat and then rush to another house. In the evening, they run businesses of distribution: distributing betel leaves to pan shops, brokering deals in the slums they live in, selling stuff to street-side vendors, etc.

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Aparna Krishnan Please talke a tour of India. One year. 2nd class travel. As Gandhi did.

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Surajit Dasgupta Presuming that the other person does not know is the most common fallacy in a debate.

I am a sub-altern guy from a small town of Jharkhand. I lived in an ordinary neighbourhood in Calcutta. And I spent a decade in some unauthorised colonies of Delhi. I also travel extensively. More than Gandhi did at the instance of Gopal Krishna Gokhale.

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Aparna Krishnan Then you have forgotten the poverty realities ?

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Surajit Dasgupta "Then you have forgotten the poverty realities ?"

Alternatively, you pay your maid less than her minimum legal due.

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Aparna Krishnan I am my maid. And my daughter, and my husband are the other cleaning people at home.

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Surajit Dasgupta In that case, your friend from whose house the piece of jewellery was stolen does not pay her maid well.

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Surajit Dasgupta The biggest bane in the nationalist camp is that a substantial chunk of its membership subscribes to leftist economics. :-(

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Aparna Krishnan Gram Swaraj/ I do not know (or care) if its left or right.

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Priya Jain Surajit Dasgupta - you are incorrect to say that maids earn between 15-25,000 in Delhi. That may be true if they are working for foreign nationals or some extremely rich people full time. However some maids do charge Rs 100 an hour and if they have enough part time jobs then yes that could work out to the range you have stated. Nevertheless this is true only in some parts of Delhi.

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Surajit Dasgupta Or, if they are unsmart. The maids that roam around in our housing society are super smart. They can fool you. You can't fool them.

Hardly objects of sympathy that you are making them out to be!

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Surajit Dasgupta "Gram Swaraj/ I do not know (or care) if its left or right."

Depends on what you mean by "swaraj". Making one's own destiny is swaraj ― the rightist approach. Asking everyday why the government isn't doing anything for us/villagers/poor ― and cursing the rich for all our ills ― is the leftist idea of swaraj.

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Priya Jain But you can't just make a blanket statement about them not deserving sympathy. They struggle hard to make a decent living, bringing up children there is no time for. Schools and medical care that are awful or non existent. They are smart and they have to be. Our society would crush them. Poverty would crush them, otherwise. Like with any group of people - some are nice, some not. How can one say there is any human who does not deserve sympathy (ok some psychopaths exempted but even they probably became one because of their circumstances).

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Priya Jain I don't agree however about stealing or claiming the property of others. That's exactly what happens to adivasis too. And one can't say the poor can but the rich/ powerful can't.

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Surajit Dasgupta Nobody in this world deserves sympathy. In case you realise "sympathy" is a negative term, that is.

We all deserve appreciation. Not sympathy.

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Surajit Dasgupta What is your model for their education and medical care?

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Surajit Dasgupta I've got some work. Will join the discourse later.

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Priya Jain Empathy, i agree is better than sympathy. 
Why should you expect me to have a model for education AND health care? At least teachers ought to teach and it might help matters if there were only state run schools and all kids went to the same instead of the mushrooming private schools or this business if sending all kids to tutors.the rot set in a long time ago.
As for health care - what can i say? You know what ails our country's health care. However i do work with a volunteer neurologist/ epilepsy team in rural India and we have a model for that.

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Niveditha Purush Just trying to understand. Isn't poverty relative? If this act is deemed righteous, can all relatively poor people claim from the relatively rich people, for their essential needs which are again very subjective to each individual. Can we even set standards for what is essential and what is not?

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Aparna Krishnan Please understand the message of the post. Otherwise never mind.

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Niveditha Purush I understand that the message is not about stealing/claiming or about bangles and gold or about the life of a maid. :) But there are other things that I do not understand, like how we set standards on people's right (questionable) to possessions, when it is again illusive and very relative.

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Aparna Krishnan It is a personal long and hard path towards integtity . And the courage that allows that integrity. And the understanding that allows that courage.

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Paranthaman Sriramulu First I don't accept in this "privileged" community classification. Most were poor and work hard to become rich or middle income group. It took generations of selfless hard work. And they work hard to maintain. yes, there are some people who become rich over night by unethical ways. 
People think twice for begging and living. I don't think stealing can be justified in any case. I know medical problems make people desperate and do this. Maid employer could have helped during this crisis and prevented. I am sure maid would have realized her mistake. Just move on.

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Aparna Krishnan The post is not about stealing. Or about gold. It is about the crime of people sitting on monies WHEN there is hunger elsewhere. It is about each of us.

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Paranthaman Sriramulu I agree we should all find a way to get basic things available to all. People should also know how much money saved is enough.

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Monika Sethuraman You can't justify moral turpitude with poverty. I do agree one shouldn't flaunt or amass wealth. 

Flip side - 
Many vegetable selling akkas have Gold ear rings that my mom cant even afford now. And what I like in them is they flaunt what they have such as nose stud in gold , bangles , ear rings etc . But never crave for what others have such as car fridge etc. 

To my suprise a coconut water seller has a bike and a Dish TV satellite connection while Many middle class still cling on to cable guy.

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Aparna Krishnan Look deeper. If you wish to.

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Davia Mason Although understandable as the saying goes..Do not bite the hand that feeds you.

Aparna Krishnan The post is about the crimes of the Rich.

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Paranthaman Sriramulu Today rich were yesterday poor. Many humans don't think their past. They very well know the pain of poverty yet silent.

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Srinivas Udumudi All those agreeing with the point about "claiming, not stealing", can you please DM me your home addresses. I know a lot of people who would like to claim some stuff from you.

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Aparna Krishnan I have lived in a village for 20 years, a village of landless SC labourers. We also lived in a mud house, drawn water from the same well, but obviously we were protected in a million ways as compare3d to them. That they, through drought and hunger, did not raid our home, but suffered hunger has exposed me to understandings that maybe you have stayed insulated from. thanks.